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Posted By Claire Robinson,
08 September 2021
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Claire Robinson, NACE Associate and Challenge Award Assessor, and Headteacher of Holme Grange School, calls for recognition and celebration of the achievements of young people completing GCSEs or other qualifications in 2021.
As GCSE and A-Level results were released this year, it was inevitable that there would be publicity and opinion around them. Criticism often came from those outside the sector, passing judgement on a system which they have never experienced themselves, as educator or student.
Schools all over the country were put through possibly a more rigorous process of testing and evidence gathering this year, because it was inevitable that the validity would be questioned. Evidence required to justify grades was collected and the random inspection by examination boards that schools were subject to, meant that there was no place for complacency.
We should not underestimate young people. They know if they deserve their results and they also take responsibility for the efforts they put in. If they have been given a grade, it is because they deserved to be awarded it. Allow them to celebrate and let’s recognise the time and energy that teachers gave to make sure the results awarded were fair and beyond reproach.
A year like no other… yet much the same
A student’s success at GCSE is not reflected solely in their grades. GCSEs open the door to the next stage of a young person’s educational journey. If grades awarded result in gaining access to courses which would not otherwise have been accessible, a student will not succeed. No school is going to set their students up for future failure.
Pupils may not have sat official public examinations this year, but were arguably put through a more rigorous ‘testing’ system, and teachers continued to do what they always do: challenge and support their pupils to allow them to achieve the best they possibly can and meet their potential. Had visits been permitted to schools, many would have possibly wondered whether the examinations were in fact still being held, as we continued to provide an environment that allowed students to experience the examination system for which they had all been prepared, and would benefit from in the future.
In previous years, where ‘mock’ examinations are usually held just before or just after the Christmas break, students have made considerable progress as the time between mock examinations and the ‘real thing’ provides opportunity to work with focus and deep analysis of what is required to improve. This continued this academic year, yet was sometimes questioned as being unfair as teachers guided, challenged and supported students – as was ever thus.
Teachers are professionals and this year their professionalism was recognised as their judgments were valued and under intense scrutiny. Switching between online and onsite teaching and quite often a hybrid of both, teachers continued to ensure their students’ needs were met – academically, socially and emotionally.
Opportunities to thrive – not just survive
Teachers know their students well and good teachers always know at what level their student is achieving and what they need to do to improve. Ongoing monitoring and evaluation also provide students with an opportunity to take greater ownership of their learning and apply metacognitive skills, nurturing self-awareness and developing skills for life.
Learners construct knowledge using cognitive strategies, and they guide, regulate, and evaluate their learning using metacognitive strategies, which is where real learning occurs. Students have applied a wider range of independent learning skills over the past 18 months and ‘thought about their thinking’ in a way which possibly they may not have done in ‘ordinary’ times. The pandemic opened opportunities in our schools for students to become more skilled at using metacognitive strategies; many gained confidence and become more independent as learners. Our able learners strengthened and when the correct pastoral support was given, academic success followed.
Let us also not forget, our young people are far more than a set of grades and we should not be defining them by these anyway. It is simply just one step along the journey they make. Let us take time to say well done for a group of people, who, if we allow them, could be the healthiest, the safest, and potentially the most resilient of any generation in modern history. Pupils have learnt how to manage life’s uncertainties and we should give them credit for that.
The world of education is one which has always, and is likely to always be, one which is open to others' opinions and ideas on how to make it better – from within the sector and from outside of it. We may have all been to school but not many have experienced school in a global pandemic! Most schools grew stronger; pupils did not simply 'survive' – many thrived because they were taught within communities that care, where professionals worked beyond all expectations to ensure children in their care continued to grow during these most testing of times.
“Just waiting to get out there and take our place in the world”
Yes, results are different this year, but let's not devalue the efforts our young people have made or that their teachers have given in order to support them. Teaching is a profession filled with people of integrity and it is also a great vocation. We have all come through one of the most challenging times in educational history; we have done so with great resilience, perseverance, professionalism and humour.
And has anyone asked the students about their thoughts and how they value their GCSEs? I finish with a quote from our head of school, a Y11 pupil in his final address to the school:
“We have been nurtured into citizens who are rounded and grounded, eager to make a positive contribution to the outside world… Not even a global pandemic can dampen our spirits, as a community we pulled together. The hours of live Zoom lessons, emails and Google Classroom notifications enabled us to continue our education in the comfort of our own homes.
“We are so much more than an educational establishment with a focus purely on academics – we are a laboratory filled with budding scientists, the next generation of ‘Michelin Star Chefs’, we are the ‘Steve Jobs’, ‘Shakespeares’, ‘Flemings’ and ‘Monets’ just waiting to get our there and take our place in the world.”
I think this is one example where expectations continued to be high, pupils continued to be challenged and to aim high, to be aspirational in their goals and supported and challenged to achieve them – as I have no doubt was echoed in schools across the country. Again, let’s celebrate what has been achieved, instead of picking fault in the young people and devaluing their efforts. This year’s GCSE students should be truly independent learners for life, as their future success will undoubtedly show.
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Posted By Sue Riley,
22 October 2020
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Sue Riley, NACE CEO
Many of you will have seen the open letter to the Sunday Times from the recently formed Rethinking Assessment group. Born from issues raised this summer, Rethinking Assessment is a broad coalition of state and independent schools, universities, academics, employers and other stakeholders, which aims to value the strengths of every child. At its heart lies four fundamental principles:
- Many young people find the way our exam system works increasingly stressful and not a true reflection of what they are good at.
- Many employers complain that exams do not provide them with good enough clues as to who they are employing.
- Many headteachers feel that high-stakes exams distort priorities and stop them from providing a well-rounded education for their pupils.
- Many who are passionate about social mobility believe that any system that dooms a third to fail is a system with little sense of social justice.
We want to add our members’ voice and our research to this debate. There are immediate questions to be answered and longer-term opportunities to recalibrate the assessment system so that all learners have their full range of strengths recognised. As a membership organisation we can share and build on the decisions school leaders are taking now and over time provide perspectives that will inform longer-term changes.
Assessment is of course an integral part of learning and teaching. It facilitates daily ongoing review of individual progress and impacts on planning and target-setting. It supports personal learning targets. But we must not let the tail wag the dog. Not everything needs to be assessed, or indeed can be assessed, or needs to be independently assessed. We must consider too the timing of assessment – even more pressing as schools focus on tier 2 rota planning.
Whilst a decision over summer exams has been made in principle, “fall-back” detail remains unclear and learners are picking up on this, increasingly questioning the reasoning behind assignments, and the part they will play in assessment. All of this detracts from the richness of a subject.
The Early Career Framework and Teachers’ Standards have done much to support the teaching profession’s development in recent years. We must trust teachers with assessment, but teachers must be clear on what they are assessing and why.
What can we therefore now do in our schools to readdress this balance? One response lies in thinking about what we assess on a day-to-day basis in classrooms, how we build on low-stakes testing, and how we position effective challenge. How effectively do your teachers use retrieval practice for example? Deliberately recalling information forces us to pull knowledge “out” and examine what we know. The “struggle” or challenge to recall information improves memory and learning – by trying to recall information, we exercise or strengthen our memory, and we can also identify gaps in our learning.
NACE has recently undertaken a literature review of retrieval practice – looking at the theoretical framework and considering emergent related classroom practices and practical amendments and applications for more able learners. To access this review, click here.
Beyond the here and now of assessment, we need to return to the longer-term focus of the Rethinking Assessment coalition. Against the current backdrop, what could we do to improve the assessment system more broadly? How would we do it differently, allowing us to show non-traditional talents – making assessment more effective for employers, individuals and supporting the practising teacher? Fundamentally, how can we assess the child in front of us?
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Posted By Chris Yapp,
23 April 2019
Updated: 07 August 2019
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Ahead of his keynote speech at this year’s NACE National Conference, NACE patron Dr Chris Yapp offers an aspirational yet realistic vision of how artificial intelligence (AI) could help solve current challenges in education.
It is easy to be overwhelmed with both the scope and pace of change in the modern world. Faced with educating children for a world that does not yet exist, for jobs that we don’t yet understand, it is easy to close one’s ears, put heads down and hope it will all go away. Be it as a government minister, as parents, school leaders, teachers or governors, the lack of clarity on the world we are preparing children and young adults for can cause us to become risk-averse and confine our efforts to the areas we feel most confident about.
My experience over a lifetime working in the public, private and third sectors is that this is a mistake. I have seen sectors and companies fail because they clung to a world view that was past its sell-by date.
Adapting to a fast-changing world
When I first became engaged with educational reform nearly 30 years ago, it was common to hear the argument that teaching was inherently a conservative profession and resistant to change.
On the contrary, in my work I have found health professionals, lawyers, accountants, various built environment professions to face the same challenges in shifting professional practice to adapt to a changing world. In all sectors, including education, there are people who thrive on change and others who prefer a comfortable silo.
I have often argued that it is our attitude to change that needs to be rethought, not change itself.
My experience is that in general people do not resist change, they resist being changed. If people feel that change is being thrust on them without their acceptance, engagement and understanding, they will resist. Yet if they feel engaged in and responsible for delivering change, the same changes can feel far less stressful, indeed liberating.
During my time at school and university, the best teachers embraced change and encouraged that in me. The teachers I meet who I find inspiring are constant innovators.
That said, I would argue that society and the economy are facing levels of change over the next few decades – from climate change, technological change and societal and demographic challenges – that require systemic responses that cannot be delivered by individual teachers, educational institutions, advisers and consultants simply “doing their best”.
An aspirational but realistic approach to AI
In this post, I want to illustrate just one strand, the impact of artificial intelligence (AI). Each week I see yet another claim around AI developments in health, education, law, autonomous vehicles and so on. There is a lot of hype around, as ever, but the potential is real, and the possibilities will grow over next few decades.
So, instead of throwing AI tools and techniques at teachers, schools and colleges and hoping something will stick, can we enable students and teachers to become masters, not victims, of AI-enabled change?
I’d like to commend a recent report from Nesta on AI in education which is grounded in the real world yet is aspirational about a more effective, human system of education.
Let’s start by hitting the hype on the head. AI will not replace teachers. While progress in a variety of technologies under the banner of AI is genuinely impressive, we are a long way from the full AI vision. Artificial general intelligence (AGI) is a long-term goal for many in AI research and industry. AGI is about building systems and machines that have a broad range of capabilities that match the breadth of human skillsets.
What we can do now and for the foreseeable future is use AI on specific tasks. The narrower the task, the easier it is to build an AI system that can match a human at that task. We can build AI systems that beat champions at Go, but also outperform doctors in diagnostics.
What existing challenges can AI be used to address?
So, let’s put AI in its proper place, starting with the problems and challenges currently faced by schools:
1. What are the biggest impediments to improving learning at individual, class, institution and national levels?
2. How can we free up teachers’ time to enable them to develop the skills to become masters of change?
3. What tasks can AI perform to support education at all levels from individual to the UK and beyond?
Too often, we have tried to answer the third question without being clear on the first two. Of course, more funding would always help, but it is not a panacea if it acts as a sticking plaster to old ways.
This leads to the next important step…
4. How can education stakeholders engage with developments in AI to shape the capability to address the real challenges and opportunities that AI presents?
Practical and ethical implications
Let me illustrate this with two examples.
The first is in assessment. Imagine you have two pupils who are “B” standard at the end of the year. Based on your experience, Pupil 1 is strong in X and weak in Y, and Pupil 2 the reverse. Understanding next year’s curriculum, you might believe that Pupil 1 might get an A but 2 might move towards a C.
That insight would be very helpful to next year’s teacher but your workload to give far more detailed assessments on each pupil would be unacceptable.
This is precisely the type of task AI is well suited to. Reform of assessment is a perennial bugbear in my experience. We have the technology now to do what many have aspired to for decades, which is to build a more learning-focused, rich assessment framework that supports teachers and learners without adding to the burden and stress on teachers. That is easier to say than do, of course. If we follow the model of building technology and imposing it on schools the potential will be missed, and we will all feel the loss.
The second example is around the ethical implications of developments in AI. We already have examples of AI developments where the systems can be shown to discriminate on gender, race and other grounds. This has profound importance for curriculum developments in teaching AI within schools, but also for the ethical frameworks within which teachers and schools operate. AI, like all technologies, does not exist in a vacuum.
Indeed, I would argue that climate change is an ethical issue as much as it is a scientific discourse. I’ll leave this as an open question here: “Is a grounding in ethics part of the 21st century core curriculum?”
Throughout my years engaged with education at all levels, there has been an aspiration for education to become more evidence-based and research-led. I think we will only deliver on that goal if education professionals are developed and recognised as masters of change. Only then can we thrive on change rather than implement stress-reducing coping strategies. If we are to prepare this generation of young people for the world to come, we owe it to them and ourselves to work together and build an ambitious vision of the teaching workforce.
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Posted By Hilary Lowe,
17 January 2019
Updated: 22 December 2020
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Following the recently published report Access to Advantage, NACE Education Adviser Hilary Lowe shares additional recommendations for schools seeking to ensure more able learners of all backgrounds, socioeconomic contexts and in all parts of the UK have access to the most competitive higher education pathways.
The recently published Sutton Trust report Access to Advantage returns to the issues raised in the 2011 report Degrees of Success, which looked at university acceptance rates and how they differ by school type and area, finding state school pupils were considerably less likely to go to top universities than those at independent or grammar schools.
This new report uses UCAS data to analyse university acceptance rates for the 2015-17 cohorts by school type and region, with findings showing little changed since the 2011 study. In the UK, whether an individual attends university, and the institution at which they study, remains highly influenced by socioeconomic background, school attended, and the part of the country they are from.
Access to Advantage puts forward recommendations for schools and universities to help close the gap in higher education participation rates.
For schools:
- All pupils should receive a guaranteed level of careers advice from professional impartial advisers. For those facing disadvantage – or who are at risk of failing to reach their potential – there should be further support available, including being supported to undertake and reflect upon academic enrichment activities for the personal statement. The ‘Careers Leaders’ in schools, established by the government’s Careers Strategy, should ensure that key messages are consistent across staff and based on up to date guidelines.
- Advice should happen earlier, and include guidance on subject options at A level. Many young people are not getting the right advice when it comes to A level options. Students need more support at an earlier age, that can help them to make an informed choice on their A-level choices. This should include advice on ‘facilitating subjects’, favoured by Russell Group universities.
For universities:
- Universities should make greater use of contextual data in their admissions process, to open-up access to students from less privileged backgrounds.
- There should be greater transparency from universities when communicating how contextual data is used, including the use of automated ‘contextual data checkers’.
- A geographic element should be included in future university access agreements, including a focus on peripheral areas.
- Universities should work to reassure students and families who may be reluctant to move substantial distances to university.
What more can schools do?
NACE endorses the report recommendations – many of which it already supports in practical ways through its professional development programmes and publications, such as the newly published NACE Essentials guide on careers education, information, advice and guidance (CEIAG) for more able learners (log in to our members’ site for access to the full Essentials range).
However, much needs to be in place – in and outside school – at the earliest stages of schooling to give all learners the best chances of reaching the destinations of which they are capable. Our recommendations for schools include:
- Make full use of the body of evidence on what works to improve learner outcomes, including what works for the most able learners. Join the NACE community for regularly updated updates, guidance, publications, professional development programmes and the latest relevant research from the only UK organisation with a specialist focus on more able learners.
- Ensure that subject choices and option and qualifications pathways allow optimal choices for learners. The new Ofsted framework will support schools in evaluating the “curriculum of opportunity” and this will be a focus for NACE in the coming months and at our national conference in June.
- Focus on aspiration raising and the development of social capital and wider learning experiences. NACE courses, resources and Challenge Award-accredited schools provide many examples of how this is being achieved and can be successfully achieved in all schools.
- Continue efforts to increase teacher supply/access in academic subjects where there are currently shortages and in the areas of the country most at risk.
Schools alone cannot alone solve the challenges of social inequality, but they do play a vital role in opening doors for all young people by providing high-quality learning experiences in and outside school, a challenging and broad curriculum, informed and inclusive advice and guidance, and inspiring role models and mentors.
For additional guidance and inspiration, log in to our members’ site for your free copy of the NACE Essentials guide to CEIAG for more able learners.
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Posted By Stephen Parry-Jones,
04 December 2018
Updated: 22 December 2020
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Stephen Parry-Jones, Seren Network hub coordinator for Rhondda Cynon Taf and Merthyr Tydfil, takes a look at the network’s successes to date and plans to extend its coverage…
The Seren Network arose from concerns expressed by Lord Murphy, the former Cabinet Minister, that numbers of Welsh undergraduates at Oxford had declined. Lord Murphy was then appointed Welsh Government Oxbridge Ambassador and asked to explore possible reasons; he produced his final report in 2014, which can be viewed on the Seren website.
I was one of 11 individuals, drawn from every Welsh local authority, who were charged with turning his suggestion into some sort of reality. The emphasis was to be on bringing academically gifted sixth-formers together in “hubs” and providing them with super-curricular activities, as well as the additional support and guidance that a strong Oxbridge application requires.
Increase in Oxbridge applications from Wales
Many extension classes, visits from HE outreach officials, and trips to universities later, I was both pleased and relieved that the first independent evaluation, in 2017, was positive, in particular that “Seren makes a positive contribution to raising aspirations, boosting confidence and encouraging students to think more ambitiously about their university choices.”
The numbers are still being crunched, but it was encouraging that UCAS reported a 6% increase in “October 15th” applications from Wales – and this from a smaller pool of 17-year-olds, and with only the three pilot hubs functioning. Cambridge in particular has reported an upturn in the number of applications from Wales and, more importantly, the number of offers made. Applications to Oxford have also increased, though we have still to crack the challenging entrance tests that applicants face.
We quickly began to see that Seren was not just about Oxbridge, but about high-tariff university courses in general, whether in Wales, the wider UK or beyond. In my own hub, which serves some of Wales’ most deprived regions, I have been delighted to see Seren students taking up places at the most competitive universities, with Bristol, Imperial, Manchester and Warwick proving very popular. One student from our first cycle also gained a place at Yale, and others are now determined to follow her.
Plans to extend Seren’s work to KS3 and 4
Of the evaluation’s recommendations, perhaps the most significant was the idea that Seren extend its work into Key Stages 3 and 4. This was something Seren hub coordinators and heads of sixth-form were already trying to do: we had very early on realised that remedial work post-16, focusing just on the sixth form, is simply too late. Ambitions often crystallise in Key Stage 3 and GCSE options, so critical for future pathways, are increasingly made in Year 8.
As with the hubs geared to sixth formers, work here will probably start with pilots, though existing hub coordinators are well placed to broker partnerships between schools, universities and organisations such as NACE and The Brilliant Club.
Local universities are also a supremely valuable resource, and Rhondda Cynon Taf has for several years organised an intensive day for its most academic Year 9 pupils at the University of South Wales. Subjects on offer have included philosophy, Mandarin, solving unusual maths problems, and Latin. Many of those attending had previously been unaware of the university’s existence, and were surprised to find they were able to cope with intellectual exercises of demanding nature. For some, it was the first time they had realised that they were “clever.”
Another crucial asset is local students at top-flight universities who are willing to talk to school pupils. Rhondda Cynon Taf has run an Oxbridge day for Year 10 pupils, featuring stimulating Q&A sessions with current undergraduates. We have now extended this to parents, and have been lucky to be able to call upon access and outreach fellows from both universities to talk to parents on a “cluster” basis. This has been particularly important in busting those Oxbridge myths which can do so much to deter able learners who are not from privileged backgrounds.
Our challenge now will be how we avoid diluting Seren’s offer without excluding those who might benefit – keeping in mind NACE’s core principles that ability is fluid, can be developed, and is closely linked to mindset.
After reading modern history at Oxford, Stephen Parry-Jones taught for 38 years. Apart from a five-year stint in a London direct grant grammar school, his career was spent in comprehensive schools in South Wales. He retired as a deputy head in 2015, and is now Seren hub coordinator for Rhondda Cynon Taf and Merthyr Tydfil education authorities.
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Posted By Sara Elliss,
06 September 2017
Updated: 07 August 2019
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Reading’s Maiden Erlegh School recently gained NACE Challenge Award accreditation for the third time, marking its continued commitment to high-quality provision for more able learners in a context of challenge for all. In this blog post, deputy headteacher Sara Elliss outlines some of the key initiatives undertaken at the school to ensure more able learners are challenged and supported throughout their studies.
Whole-school leadership
The lead school within Maiden Erlegh Trust and Maiden Erlegh Teaching School Alliance, Maiden Erlegh School is a mixed comprehensive with approximately 1,800 students, with a high proportion of more able learners identified based on KS2 results on entry from a diverse local population.
For a number of years, the School Improvement Plan has included a section specifically referring to provision for the more able, which has been progressed by curriculum areas through annual Department Development Plans. All quality assurance documentation includes a section relating to provision for the more able, and all staff are encouraged to include a teaching, learning and assessment appraisal objective centred around challenge.
There is a more able coordinator to ensure provision is in place and student progress is tracked. All students choose their own aspirational target grade, which is based around FFT-5, with approximately 40% of students achieving these aspirational targets at the end of KS4.
Within the classroom
All schemes of work have been developed with the philosophy of teaching to the more able learners, and differentiating work to the support learners who are not able to access it at that level. A number of CPD sessions have been run by staff at all levels within the school with an emphasis on challenge.
Beyond the classroom
The Gold Programme was established for Year 9 students in 2012, aiming to:
- Give students every opportunity to broaden their intellectual experience well in advance of applying for university;
- Expose them to discussions and thinking beyond GCSE;
- Introduce them to universities, courses, and university alumni;
- Model a passion for learning and intellectual rigour.
In 2013, following our reaccreditation with the NACE Challenge Award, the NACE report recommended that Maiden Erlegh School should “create opportunities for younger [more able] students to work together as a group in the way that older students do through the Gold Programme”. In 2014, the school launched the KS3 Gold Programme, which has now evolved into the Silver Programme. This programme aims to:
- Provide students with the opportunity be stretched and challenged beyond the classroom;
- Help them become independent, higher-order learners;
- Celebrate their academic ability.
Students and parents are invited to a launch event at the beginning of Year 7 (Silver Programme) and Year 9 (Gold Programme). They are invited to join the programme if they are interested in the events that will be run throughout the year. Participation is not compulsory; the emphasis is on the student to engage with the opportunities provided. Each student is given a badge to wear on their blazer if they are a member of the Silver or Gold Programme.
The Gold and Silver Programmes offer a selection of sessions run voluntarily by staff after school, including:
- Studying… grade 9 skills which are subject-specific and include debating, critical essay writing, questioning
- Introducing… Latin, Greek, Italian, Chinese
- Exploring… psychology, criminology, philosophy, scene of crime officer (SOCO)
- Informing… medicine, Oxbridge, careers, developing resilience and using failure
- Thinking… “Gender neutrality: the way forward or PC gone mad?”; “Will we get a white Christmas?”; “The Lightning Process”; “The Palestinian Israeli conflict”; “Siege of Kenilworth Castle 1215”; “The Economics of Brexit”
- Reflecting… “If only I’d known then…”
- Visiting… Reading University, Thales, Tech Deck, STEM challenge days, Cambridge University
What has been the impact?
Learning walks and lesson observations indicate that there has been a noticeable shift in the pedagogy being used. Staff ensure students have enough time to think, question and explore ideas. At every data collection point, the more able data is analysed separately and included in the self-evaluation form for governors, senior leadership and teaching staff to evaluate. From this data it is clear that over 90% of the more able Year 7 students are making at least good or expected progress, or are now above national or well above national levels. KS4 and KS5 results analysis has also shown that students involved with the Gold Programme have performed well.
How is your school developing provision and support for more able learners? Contact us to share your story.
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Posted By Tom Hague,
04 September 2017
Updated: 03 November 2020
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At the 2017 Pupil Premium Awards, NACE member Fullhurst Community College was celebrated as a regional champion for its success in raising attainment for those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Deputy principal Tom Hague, who oversees the school’s pupil premium strategy, outlines the key factors behind this success.
While innovative, our approach to pupil premium is also simple, in that it’s grounded in good teaching and learning. We believe the most important factor is what goes on in the classroom, and this is backed up by research – but we also recognise the significance of other factors, such as attendance, behaviour and wellbeing. We take a “marginal gains” approach, trying to remove as many small barriers as we can for pupils, so they can do well academically.
Over half of our students qualify for pupil premium. As the majority, this group is always at the forefront of teachers’ minds, and the expectation of these pupils has to be high, because the school’s success is based on theirs. Though typically on entry our students start below the national average in terms of attainment, they still need to reach the highest levels to have the best prospects – and our disadvantaged more able learners perform above the national average for their group.
Combining external and in-school research
We use a simple software, MINTclass, to identify and track disadvantaged students. When underperformance is identified, we intervene rapidly, giving priority to these students in classroom interactions. We also ask teachers to mark these students’ work first, to ensure they receive timely feedback, and to keep them at the fore of teachers’ minds.
The data we track is not only shared with staff, but also with learners. Visual displays in each classroom show performance against targets, focusing on progress rather than attainment, with the aim of motivating students to keep improving.
Evidence from external sources is also used to inform our pupil premium strategy, including research published by organisations such as the Education Endowment Foundation, DfE white papers, and the work of previous Pupil Premium Award winners. Such research has led us to run CPD on effective feedback, re-evaluate our use of teaching assistants, and even make changes to the way we reward students. However, external evidence is always approached with caution; we are aware that any single intervention will not necessarily work in every context.
Within school, we encourage our staff to engage in research projects, with the intention of raising standards for our students. Recent examples include a project by our Embedding Literacy Leader, evaluating the effectiveness of different reading schemes and subsequent outcomes among students. Such research is showcased in our weekly teaching and learning staff briefing, disseminated by faculty leaders, and uploaded to our staff VLE, so it informs our teaching and learning strategy going forward.
In-school research by one of our Curriculum Leaders focused on effective teaching and learning strategies for more able disadvantaged students, and identified modelling as particularly effective for this group. For example, instead of just giving students a practice paper and then marking it, we break the paper down into chunks. Students are given time to work on a section, then the teacher models the process of answering each question – showing them how the answer is arrived at, how to set it out, and so on.
The modelling approach has worked well in maths, English and science, and we plan to spread it across the whole school – not just for revision and exam preparation, but more widely. This will be one of our main strategies for all students, with a particularly high impact expected for the more able disadvantaged.
Removing barriers to achievement
Being a member of NACE has complemented our intention to continue to drive standards up for more able learners, both in the classroom and from an enrichment perspective. One such benefit of our NACE membership has been CPD, which has helped our more able coordinator to inform the planning and delivery of our More Able Programme. The online resources provided by NACE have been used across faculties within the school, and the research featured on the website has aided our development of teaching and learning for more able learners.
Part of our pupil premium funding goes towards CPD. The funding also covers our More Able Coordinator role, which focuses on support for more able disadvantaged learners, building cultural capital as well as academics. This includes a series of Year 7 projects which students present to parents each half term, and a Year 9 project with The Brilliant Club.
Careers guidance is another major focus in our support for disadvantaged more able learners, with the aim of raising their aspirations. Our full-time lead on enterprise and employability works with all students, with priority given to the more able disadvantaged to ensure they receive bespoke advice.
Beyond this, we try to remove as many additional barriers as we can. In the past year we’ve worked with the Education Endowment Foundation on a research project they were evaluating, running a project to educate our students on good sleep patterns and the importance of sleep. Another example involved reaching out to Specsavers after realising many of our students were reporting difficulties seeing the board; this led to Specsavers developing a free eye-screening kit which is now used by schools across the country.
Our recent success at the Pupil Premium Awards is recognition for the work we’re doing at every level in the school, involving all members of staff. It’s proof that the available research and guidance are effective, and that those marginal gains really add up.
Tom Hague is a deputy principal at Fullhurst Community College in Leicester. Tom leads on outcomes and curriculum, including the use of the pupil premium. Tom joined Fullhurst through the Teach First programme, and recently also completed the Future Leaders programme with Ambition School Leadership.
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Posted By Colin Parker,
11 July 2017
Updated: 07 August 2019
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Colin Parker, headteacher of King Edward VI Aston School, outlines the school’s inspiring approach to admitting and supporting more able learners from disadvantaged backgrounds.
At King Edward VI Aston School (Aston) we have one of the highest proportions of students coming from a disadvantaged background at any selective school in the country, with around 40% of Year 7 and 8 students receiving financial support.
This is partly because of location; the school is situated in one of the most economically deprived areas of Birmingham, in a region offering numerous selective schools for parents wary of sending their child to the inner city. But primarily it is because the school has given priority to admitting students from disadvantaged backgrounds. We are also fortunate in having a separate source of funding, to support students based on postcode rather than parental income.
Levelling the admission test playing field
A few years ago, the King Edward VI Foundation commissioned research indicating that social diversity was declining in its selective schools, and consequently put in place measures that would result in more students from disadvantaged backgrounds gaining places.
The first issue to consider was admission policy; from September 2015 Aston has given priority to admitting up to 25% of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds. To make this a realistic proposition and go some way to levelling the admission test playing field, the school has set a qualifying score significantly lower than the score achieved in recent years by the last student to gain entry. Any student from a disadvantaged background achieving the qualifying score has a very good chance of securing a place.
Secondly, with the support of the Foundation, the school runs a familiarisation programme, working with primary schools who have a significant number of disadvantaged students. Parents and their sons are invited into the school, with the students undertaking work similar to that which they will encounter on the admissions test, including sitting a practice test paper.
Bridging economic, social and cultural gaps
So far, the increase in the number of students from a disadvantaged background has had no noticeable impact in academic terms. Evidence to date indicates that their academic progress is in line with, if not better than, non-disadvantaged students. We use most of our pupil premium funding to bridge the economic, social and cultural gaps, including a grant for participation in extracurricular activities.
It is also about expectations and language. At GCSE, we are talking about grades A*/A or above 7 and at A-level grades A*-B and then progressing to a high-tariff university. These expectations are relentlessly shared with the boys and their parents.
This is a whole-staff effort and a shared culture. At Aston, unlike many schools, we do not have a pupil premium champion; it is an expectation that this role will be played by all staff.
This all comes back to the reasons why we are in education. Our view is that the point of education is to transform lives, and that will happen when a student from a disadvantaged background gets into a high-tariff university and consequently on the path to securing professional employment. It will not only transform the life of the student, but also that of his family.
This blog post is based on an article first published in the summer 2017 edition of the NACE Insight newsletter, available for all NACE member schools. To view past editions of Insight, log in to the members’ area of the website.
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